Randall-Reilly Acquires Two Transportation Construction Titles

Randall-Reilly, a Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based b-to-b publisher serving the transportation and construction markets, has purchased Better Roads and Aggregates Manager from James Informational Media. The two titles generate about $5 million and the four-person management team will remain in place as equity owners.

The assets are intended to bolster Randall-Reilly’s Construction Media Group, which already covers the equipment and landscape care markets. Mike Reilly, president and CEO of Randall-Reilly, says that the offices for the two magazines will remain in Des Plaines, Illinois "until the lease runs out and then we’ll scratch our heads about where to put them." Reilly adds that he’ll let the team operate as normal for the first year before any serious tinkering begins. "We don’t make a lot of changes in the first year. We like them so much we buy them and the last thing we want to do is go in and screw things up," he says.

The two titles, which target highway professionals, are led by four co-partners: Editorial director Kirk Landers, publisher Mike Porcaro and managing partners James Moriarty and James Morrissey. The team, says Reilly, was one of the major reasons-aside from the strategic importance-for acquiring the titles. "You just don’t find talent like that in one place anymore," he says.

The deal coincides with the two-year anniversary of Mike Reilly’s estimated $75 million buy-out of Randall publishing. Since then, says Reilly, the company has grown about 30 percent-half through acquisition and half organically.